Judge OKs $415M settlement in Silicon Valley salary-cap conspiracy case, but cuts legal fees in half
Steve Jobs. Jaguar PS / Shutterstock.com
After five years of litigation, a federal judge has OK’d a $415 million settlement in a case over an alleged civil conspiracy by leaders of top Silicon Valley companies to put a lid on tech worker salaries.
However, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh halved the $81 million in attorney fees sought by the lawyers who pursued the San Jose case against Apple Inc., Google Inc., Intel Corp. and Adobe Systems Inc., finding that the requested amount would be a “windfall,” Reuters reports.
As shown by emails sent by executives including Apple founder Steve Jobs, the companies participated in a no-poaching conspiracy that——because they declined to hire each other’s high-tech employees—had the effect of keeping salaries down, the plaintiffs said.
The settlement will provide about $5,800 each to 64,000 technology workers, according to the Associated Press and the San Jose Mercury News.
Three other companies—Intuit, Pixar and Lucasfilm—pad a total of $20 million last year to settle the same allegations.
All of the companies resolved a similar Department of Justice antitrust probe by agreeing in 2010 not to have anti-poaching pacts.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Apple, Google settle in claimed conspiracy to put a lid on tech salaries; workers had sought $3B”
ABAJournal.com: “Federal judge nixes $325M settlement by Apple, Google, others in claimed salary-cap conspiracy”
